Easier Without
by Leaving-My-Mark
Summary: Korra wakes up a few hours after being found and learns that quite a bit has happened in her absence. Takes place right after episode 9. Makorra with some Bolin and Korra friendship thrown in.


**A/N: **Some of you probably hate me for not updating ASDP for over a week but posting a brand new one-shot up. I'm sorry, I swear I'll finish ASDP! Give me some time! After I graduate, I'll have all the time in the world for it! The fact that the amazing episodes 8 and 9 totally blew my theory into the water and made it sink 20,000 leagues under the sea didn't help me, either. But I'll finish it for you, I promise!

Anyways, for now, take this. It probably sucks a lot, but it's something.

Warning: Borra friendship and Makorra angsty romance ahead!

* * *

Korra wakes up in her bed late in the evening, wincing when the soreness all over and the throbbing in her head hit her at the same time. She lets out a groggy groan as she puts a hand to her head and starts to push herself up, but suddenly there's a hand on her shoulder gently pressing her back down.

Looking over at the person sitting beside her in an old chair they pulled up, Korra realizes that it's Bolin.

"Whoa, take it easy there," he says calmly, waiting until she lies back down to take his hand off of her. He looks concerned about her health but relieved that she's woken up at last.

"Bolin?" she asks, wanting to curse how hoarse and weak her voice sounds. He seems to look a little upset at it, too, knowing that this tired, scarred, and weak version of her isn't really her at all. "How long have I been out?"

"Well, you've kind of been drifting in and out of consciousness ever since we found you, but after we got you back here you were really out until just now. I'd say it's been about five hours."

"How late is it?" Korra wonders, raising an eyebrow at him. She doesn't want him to be staying up until outrageous hours of the night just to watch her sleep.

"Mmmm…" Bolin has to pause and think about it, which already indicates to her that he hasn't been paying attention to any sort of clock. Which means he's been here for a while, and that upsets her.

"You didn't need to stay with me. You _don't_ need to stay with me. I'm gonna be fine. Go get some sleep."

"Actually, you're wrong about that. I actually sort of did need to stay," he explains. "We wanted to make sure someone was around when you first woke up. We weren't sure how long it would be or how you would feel."

"Speaking of we," Korra begins, looking past Bolin, her eyes fixing on the closed door, "Where are Mako? And Tenzin? And Asami?"

"Tenzin's getting himself some beauty rest. He wanted to take mine, the one right after Mako's, but it was already getting late. I told him he should get some sleep and that I'll wake him up if anything happens," Bolin informs her, and she finds herself grinning at this little exchange between Tenzin and Bolin and kind of wishes she had gotten to see it.

"And Mako and Asami?" she asks expectantly.

"Mako wanted to take a second shift, but Tenzin and I both told him no. He looked too tired; I think he really worked himself out trying to find you. But I doubt he's sleeping. Last I saw him, Asami was dragging him off somewhere with a pretty serious look on her face. She…said she wanted to talk to him about something," Bolin says, rubbing his neck and blushing. He averts his eyes from her, and Korra frowns and shifts herself up in her bed so she's sitting up further and leaning against the pillow.

"What do you mean? Did something happen while you guys were out looking for me?"

"She…kind of…heard something…about a certain…thing…between you two…with the tournament…and—" Bolin goes on reluctantly, avoiding eye contact and making ridiculous gestures as he stumbles through an explanation. He's trying to find a gentle way to mention it. It's awkward for him to bring up, seeing as when he had seen Mako and Korra kiss he'd lost it completely and run off into the night, tossing the bouquet of flowers he'd bought Korra into the wind.

"What?" Korra rasps in surprise, her eyes growing wide. "You mean—but how did she-?"

"I…may have…" he begins slowly two octaves above his normal range.

"Bolin!" she cries.

"Look, she forced it out of me! I didn't have a choice! I She was _very _persistent!" Bolin says in an attempt to defend himself. "She already had her suspicions."

"Damn it, Ikki," Korra mutters under her breath, looking away from Bolin with scornful eyes.

"What?" Bolin asks, because he didn't catch what she'd said. Or at least, he didn't understand it in context.

"Nothing," Korra answers, collecting herself again quickly and turning back to face him. Her expression softens. "So, what, did she just outright ask if anything had…happened between us?"

"No, she asked if I thought Mako liked you as more than…you know, friends. I tried to tell her that that was silly, but she didn't buy it. She asked me for the truth and then asked if anything had ever happened between you guys, and that's when I had to tell her. I tried to assure her it didn't mean anything, but…"

How did Asami react?" she asks, fearing the answer.

Seeing the fear and guilt in her gaze, Bolin tries to phrase the answer as gently as possible. "She…looked shocked."

"She probably looked heart-broken, too, didn't she? Don't sugarcoat it, Bolin. I want to hear it how it is," Korra insists.

He sighs and lets the rest of the truth out. "Yeah, she looked completely crushed. She just sort of stopped talking after that. For a moment, I thought she was going to cry. But we were in some Equalist tunnel and a couple chi-blockers came riding in right after that, so we didn't get a chance. Then it was all about saving you again. It really wasn't a long conversation," Bolin tells her in earnest, rubbing his neck shyly.

Korra looks down at the sheets and wishes she could just trip over that tree root and smack her head against that tree again. She feels like the shame and the guilt is burning her from the inside out. "I'm awful," she murmurs, and Bolin does a double take and says, "What?" because he figures he must have heard wrong.

"Just admit it, Bolin, I'm an awful person. Because of me, she's probably breaking up with him right now. No, actually, she probably already has. She's had everything taken away from her—her home, her father, her lifestyle—and now she's losing Mako, too, and it's all my fault."

"What? That's ridiculous. You haven't done anything wrong. You haven't even been around the past two days or so. If anyone's to blame, it's Mako. Sure, he's my brother and I should be defending him and all, but to be honest, Mako's made quite a few mistakes recently. There was that whole…you know, with him and you…but he decided to date Asami still. And then he was all protective of Asami and her father and he threatened to end his friendship with you if you didn't stop going after Hiroshi. And finally, when you were kidnapped, he kind of went wild and he kind of made his feelings for you pretty obvious.

"I think the real nail in the coffin, though, was when we finally found you on Naga and he shoved everyone else aside and carried you off. I know Asami really kept her distance from you guys the entire ride home. I don't know if you remember, but he was sitting next to you the whole time. He could hardly look away from you and he wouldn't stop touching that scar on your cheek."

She finds herself tracing a finger across her cheek where one of her many new cuts is and sighs, all the while averting her eyes from Bolin as he tells her all about how wrong she is and about how much Mako really cares for her. To be honest, she's kind of dumbstruck and in awe when she hears about how fervently he searched; how worried he was about her well-being; how devotedly he stuck by her side the entire journey back to Air Temple Island and even after that.

But again, she remembers Asami and then there's that familiar pang of guilt and blame.

"Korra, it's really not your fault. I'm sure Asami knows that."

She snorts at that. "Yeah, I doubt that. She probably hates me now."

"Yeah, well I doubt _that._ She's probably more upset with Mako," Bolin insists, but Korra doesn't believe it for a second.

"Uh huh, sure," she says doubtfully, huffing and blowing a hair out of her face. She repositions herself again, this time flopping further down onto the bed with a deep frown on her face. "Ugh, life would be so much easier if I just didn't have feelings!"

Bolin, in spite of how seriously Korra means what she said, laughs at her for a second before sobering up again. "But if we didn't have feelings, don't you think the world would be a lot worse?"

Her eyebrows bunch up in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that no one would care what damage they did to anyone else. There would be no guilt to hinder one man from killing another; no doubt to make a man think twice before he did it; no remorse to make him regret his actions…"

"There are two sides to that coin, though, Bolin. There'd also be no love that causes pain; no hurt for feelings not returned—"

"Hey, how about some positivity, huh?" says Bolin, shushing her. "Since when did you become Mrs. Grumpy Pants? That's supposed to be Mako's job."

Unable to stop herself, she giggles at his comment, although it hurts. His grin turns to a worried frown when he realizes it, too. "Sorry. I would've laid it easy on the jokes if I knew I was going to cause you pain."

"It's okay. I told you, I'm fine."

"But you know I'm right."

Korra lets out a light-hearted sigh and smiles up at him. "Okay, yeah. I'll leave the grumpy negativity to Mako."

"What about me?" asks the man in question as he abruptly appears in the doorway. Korra flinches and Bolin turns his head at his brother in surprise.

"Hey, bro. Didn't think you were asleep," says Bolin as Mako steps further into the room.

"No, I tried to but I couldn't," he explains, and then his eyes fall on Korra and grow softer. "Korra, you're awake," he notices, smiling down at her.

"Yeah, just woke up, actually," she says, trying to stave off the maddening blush that's creeping up on her cheeks.

Bolin gets up from the chair so that his brother can sit down. Mako immediately fills the space where Bolin was but instead of sitting on the chair, takes a seat on the edge of the bed and wraps his arms around her. "I'm glad you're all right. We were all so worried."

"Come on, you think I can be brought down that easily?" she asks as he pulls back.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but if it's okay with you Korra, I'm going to go get Tenzin. He'll want to know you're up," says Bolin, who sounds eager to leave. He heads out the door at Korra's acquiescing nod.

And as soon as he leaves, Korra sighs and says, "Bolin told me you and Asami were off to have a little talk last time he saw you two. What happened?"

Mako looks surprised by her bringing it up so suddenly, but ultimately looks away with a solemn and guilty look on his face before he answers. "Nothing good. She told me that Ikki said you liked me and she didn't make much of it at first. But then she saw the way we were interacting that night we were captured and you went missing and she started to wonder whether I cared about you more. And then when Lin broke us out and we learned you were missing, she saw how determined I was to find you and asked Bolin about it. He told her about what happened between us and she said that that's when she knew that our relationship was falling apart. But she said the last straw—"

"Was when you pushed through everyone and carried me onto Oogi," Korra finishes for him. "Bolin told me that's probably what did it."

Mako nods. "She asked me why I should hold off the inevitable when I've already made up my mind. She ended it, and I really couldn't say anything to stop her. She's completely right," Mako tells her quietly.

"I can't imagine how upset she must be," Korra says in the same hushed tone. "I'm sorry it ended like this for you two."

"I am, too. But it's better that it did end now, or else I would've dragged it on even longer. I was trying to spare her feelings, but I all I did was hurt her more. And you," Mako says, looking right back at her. Korra's face reddens and she looks away, unsure of how to respond.

"I'm sorry it took me so long, Korra." She meets his eyes just before he leans in and kisses her full on the lips. For a second, everything about him and him kissing her causes her to lose herself in this wonderful feeling that she's always wanted. But it doesn't feel right.

Abruptly she breaks away and sighs. "Mako, wait. I feel like we should give this a little time. We both know what are feelings towards each other are, but Asami…"

"Korra?" Tenzin rushes through the door with Bolin behind him before she can add anything else. Not that she knew what she was really planning on telling Mako, anyway.

Blushing furiously, Mako gets up and backs away from the bed so that Tenzin can see Korra. Korra, who is also looking quite embarrassed, winces before greeting Tenzin with the best smile she can muster at the moment, which is really rather pathetic.

"Lin and I never got a chance to ask…" Tenzin starts, and Korra fills him in.

Meanwhile, Mako heaves a sigh, runs a hand through his hair, and listens along with Bolin and Tenzin to the latest update Korra has about Amon and Tarrlok.

* * *

**A/N: **Please tell me what you guys think of this! I'd really love to hear some feedback! Reviews and critiques would be lovely! Thanks always!


End file.
